Our Mission:

Fort Wayne Trails will act as a community partner and advocate in the development of a connected, multi-purpose system of trails in Allen County.

Connect:

2017 Success Stories

Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2017

This year we’ve celebrated the completion of the 100th paved mile of trail in our community, and we can’t thank everyone enough for helping our community hit this milestone!

Over the last month, we have had the opportunity to explore the history of our organization, including our three predecessor organizations. What a gift we have had in the collaborative spirit of those involved in trail development in our county and cities over the last 40 years! From the beginning, trail development was a process that involved municipalities, other government entities and citizen advocates who worked to ensure a public-private partnership in building trails. This spirit continues today as Fort Wayne Trails carries that past vision and planning forward. Your contribution to our mission and operation helps make all of this happen!

Collaboration is key and over the years, Fort Wayne Trails has played a large role in working with multiple partners to accomplish great things. As we head into 2018, the obvious partners include the City of Fort Wayne, City of New Haven and Allen County, but we are also excited to be working on plans with Leo-Cedarville, Grabill, Monroeville, Huntertown and the Allen County Parks. While it may be decades before there is direct connectivity to several of these destinations, we are beginning now with local trail projects their residents and visitors can enjoy. Exciting plans are in the works and we hope to share that vision as plans are approved.

Developing a Trail App for trail users and visitors has been on our agenda for the last several years. The goal of the smart phone app is to improve trail user experience by offering guided mapping, notice of trail closures and detours, as well as offer information on important Fort Wayne Trails events and opportunities to volunteer and engage. We are excited that the Indiana Tech Software Engineering Class along with a partnership with Asher and Code Chameleon LLC has taken on this task with students from the university. We anticipate the first version of this app to be offered in the Spring 2018.

Looking into 2018 and beyond, there are projects in every quadrant of the community, thanks to collaborative planning and investment in quality of life. In Northwest, Pufferbelly and Dupont Rd., trails will take more shape. In Southwest, West Hamilton begins and the Bass Rd. project which includes trail will continue through 2023. In Southeast, the Hanna St. Trail will continue as a main artery North and South. In Northeast, trail along Stellhorn, Maysville & Maplecrest will start to make their appearance.

Believing in a vision is what keeps our community vibrant and moving forward! We are very pleased to be partnering with local elected officials and leading agencies in our cities, towns and county to create an attractive and well-connected, multi-purpose trail system.

Your gift today will create trails for our children, our children’s children and their children. Thank you in advance for your support of our mission at Fort Wayne Trails.